


to veil the heavens and cover the earth

by mysticaltorque



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Pseudo-History, and some poor civilian historian, featuring: kakashi's conspiracy theory tapes, who suffers from bad record-keeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24297817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticaltorque/pseuds/mysticaltorque
Summary: (Or, notes on the difficulty for political historians to find the records they are used to having for their favoured historical coup-throwers. Why did Shikako Nara have to be a shinobi, again?)
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Nara Shikako
Comments: 17
Kudos: 329
Collections: Exchange no Jutsu 2020, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	to veil the heavens and cover the earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heartbeatstumbles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeatstumbles/gifts).



> this is 90% digression, 10% actual content. jump to end notes for background and warnings.

  
  


The Veiling of the Heavens and the Shrouding of the Earth: Shikako Nara and Pre-Sixth Era Konohan Information Policy

By Hikaru Kawaguchi, Emeritus Scholar of Political History at Satokou-kou

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Shikako Nara’s early childhood is its relative mundanity, from the surface. Although very little autobiographical content remains from the women herself, first-hand sources are more common from those that survived into the reign of the Rokudaime. Of particular note are Kakashi Hatake’s speculations, as no one else seems to have had such a full level understanding of the situation Konoha was in for the first decade of her life- the notes of the seventeenth Nara clan head are noticeably flawed for the first few years of Shikako Nara’s active service to Konoha, with theories ranging from him trying to downplay her talents to prevent a schism within the clan to a simple specialisation issue that led to him not receiving accurate reports until he became clan head himself.

However, fragmentary Academy reports have survived through the years, as well as testimony from Shibi Aburame about the political situation faced by clan children, and the Lucky Seven cohort in particular. These reports paint a picture of Shikako Nara as one desperate to stay with her cohort- incident reports including ‘lack of confidence’ suggests she actively sabotaged any attempts to move elsewhere. While speculation is unfortunatel;y common throughout any aspect of Shikako Nara through the lens of civilian scholarship, the odd drive and mentioned asides mentioned within her confidantes records that are accessible to this day agree that in hindsight, Shikako Nara’s preteen years were marked by a drive that is difficult to justify without allowing for some form of external intervention.

In these notes, I will attempt to suggest that Tape #6 of Kakashi Hatake’s infamous ‘green tapes’ in which he speculates about Shikako Nara being aware of the true nature of the Uchiha coup and subsequent genocide as it took place is in fact a plausible theory as any, due to the little information available to us, especially due to the destruction of files that happened at the end of Hiruzen Sarutobi’s second reign leading to difficulty differentiating between policy, ROOT actions, and the refusal of clans to release relevant records even in the modern day.

Shikako Nara was higher ranked than children involved in the Foundation children that Shibi Aburame could ascertain were involved in the Post-Kyuubi Foundation initiative and onwards- the first time higher ranking legitimate clan children were openly ‘invited’ to join, likely due to Shimura’s knowledge of the greater than ever levels of political and military independence Sarutobi had afforded him due to the constraints and protectionist attitude of the Second-Third Period, a time of general stagnation. While any of the seventeenth Nara clan head’s knowledge must be called into question due to his proven misinformation and bias that pervades even his later writing looking back onto earlier times must be called into doubt for its accuracy, other sources have agreed it is unlikely that Shikako Nara was a full-time member of the Foundation program, as is noted by Hatake in Tape #6, with a reference to a lost ‘Tape #3’ that from references in other ‘green tapes’ and external transcriptions made before its loss in the Hatake-Terumi Feud suggests it was gathering evidence for the idea that Shikako Nara was a long-term Root member who broke her silencing seal during her time as a genin, largely debunked by the end. While most would use this as proof that Shikako Nara had no knowledge of Root, the fact that Hatake gathered evidence for this tape and continued with it suggests there was at least some belief. 

Most documents of the Uchiha contemporary to the time of their massacre were mysteriously destroyed either during the general cleansing of the compound along with the removal of the bodies or along with the disappearance of a large amount of general documentation. While some attribute this to Danzo Shimura and his attempt to seize power, the fact is that the loss of documentation would have been far more pervasive and effective if so, as Sasuke Uchiha was able to unlock the police station with no noted loss of documentation, a gap that Shimura would have surely taken care of, whether through arson or otherwise. This is confirmed by Hikaku Uchiha due to his witnessing of the burning of ROOT documents and records performed after the death of Danzo Shimura being decreed independently of any posthumous orders Shimura had given out and instead happening due to the recommendation of senior members of ROOT.

It is far more likely that it was a form of whitewashing specified by Sarutobi to be completed after his death, as an attempt to hide the policy of his second reign that he seems to have ordered, drawing from documents released by the Sarutobi clan that managed to survive the Razing of Konoha, as an attempt to ensure his successor would not immediately have to contend with issues. The inconsistent enforcement is characteristic of the late Third and Third-Second era, in line with the general theory that a combination of Sarutobi’s decreasing memory and contradicting orders being sent out lessened the general enforcement of proclamations in the twilight years of Sarutobi, a fact implicitly acknowledged by Hatake himself within the sixth tape, citing the decreased amount of direct orders from the Hokage he received over his time as an ANBU captain, as apparently the well-documented proto-Sound leaks especially when it came to his team caused it to reevaluate the orders he received when technically of a higher plausible deniability and anonymity to allow for high-level falsification or alteration of proclamation enforcement. 

While Hatake speaks of lacking records and mentions having coordinated with Shikako Nara in attempts to identify falsified orders, he specifically mentions a combination of lost records and the fact that Danzo would often aid in drafting Sarutobi’s proclamations and correspondence from the beginning of his initial ascension as Sandaime Hokage making it all but impossible to fully distinguish whether enforced proclamations were completely falsified or simply altered- he specifically cites a mission referenced as ‘SG-3241-Y70’, which seems to have been some form of low-stress tax collection the two had taken that, by chance, led to the eviction of the last of ROOT splinter groups and the discovery of the falsified tax proclamations that had been overcharging farmers and underpaying Konoha as well, the complete wealth which to all available records has never been recovered, leading to the myth of the ‘Treasure on the Ash Border’. It is, however, more likely that most of this tax was taken in consumables or trade goods of some form which have rotted away as the centuries passed, leaving it a purely archeological find, although thhis does not stop ameteur treasure hunters from trekking the border, and occasionally wandering away from the few safe traversal routes into the ashlands and returning...changed. 

The associated mission reports, threat assessments and pay slips for SG-3241-Y70, unfortunately, do not survive to this day in civilian archives, and any attempt to ask for specific mission reports from clan archives is as always unfruitful. If the field of political history is lucky, a segment of it may be discovered outside of an archive, thus prompting any copies to be released for study by any clan that has one, in order to clarify information. This makes it difficult to understand the level of ‘unexpected empathy’ that Hatake describes Nara having with the trapped and fleeing ROOT agents. Throughout all of his surviving material, Hatake rarely uses empathy to describe Nara, instead describing her as ‘practical’, which translates to ‘ruthless’ for non-shinobi. Indeed, although her acts of mercy and aid that she performed during her external political maneuvers are well-documented through court records or accounts from daimyo and nobles she aided, her teammates Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, both important figures within the shinobi world are both described by Kakashi to exhibit deeper empathetic behaviours throughout their lifetimes, whereas Nara appeared to use open empathy as a tool for diplomacy or maintaining close relationships. This makes the appearance of ‘empathy’ over ‘mercy’ a striking word choice for Hatake, who in almost all other recorded appearances describes Nara’s actions as ‘merciful’ over any other word choice. There is no real way to know the behaviour exhibited by Nara, and thus the possibility of prior knowledge of ROOT is more than plausible- Hatake mentions ‘Sai’, a person mentioned briefly in the few fragments of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha on their younger life still available- for undergraduate students who are reading this, the Uzumaki and Uchiha fragments are excellent as fact checkers even if the bulk of their material is somewhat outside the syllabus, due to the majority of their work tending more towards philosophy- although no records of this ‘Sai’ exist aside from anecdote, it fits the timeframe of their promotions that Uchiha and Nara had a teammate from the time when Uzumaki left the village for an apprenticeship until their high-level promotions. It is thus, plausible that ‘Sai’ noticed odd behaviour or some form of odd pattern in Nara’s behaviour, considered it unlikely to be relevant under the high-stress situation of the first decade or so of their team, and then confessed to their mentor when there was no fear of retribution after being warned by Nara- or perhaps being a member themselves, as a lack of records was allegedly a sign of a lifelong affiliation with ROOT. Either way, ‘Sai’ allegedly asked Hatake about Nara’s former knowledge of ROOT, citing odd behavior on the initial missions they worked on together that seemed bizarre in hindsight. While the company that Tape #6 keeps within Hatake’s green tape collection is not particularly illustrious- most of the theories seem to have been done more out of a desire for intellectual exercise, there are several worrying exceptions.

First, Hatake’s tone. While language has shifted over the centuries, the difficulty controlling volume and the speed of his sentences, especially compared to the controlled and dispassionate delivery of all of his other audio recordings, is shocking. This is the only recording in which Hatake has to pause to compose himself, once out of rage and once from what sounds to be a burgeoning panic attack. Finally, and perhaps most damning, is that when Shikako Nara herself interrupts the recording as is fairly common, rather than telling her what he is doing, as he does with all other instructions during the recording of his tapes, Hatake tells her he is ‘considering old history’ and ushers her out immediately. By popular anecdote from the Hatake clan when the green tapes leaked to civliain scholarship three centuries ago, the description written down the spine of each of the original tapes along with all the doodles were done by Shikako Nara herself, with the surviving unsmudged characters being similar enough examples of her writing it’s considered somewhat likely.

Of all thirty-eight tapes, only Tape #6 is left completely blank.

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the far future, where some poor shmuck of a political historian has been fighting with the Nara clan for decades to release the material about shikako nara they Know The Clan Has. They are, of course, biased against anyone who might destroy historical evidence. Unfortunately, shinobi are almost as allergic to the word 'evidence' as they are to the word 'paperwork'.  
> warning: briefly mentioned panic attack


End file.
